Terraria

About

Terraria is a 2D sandbox survival-action game developed by independent game studio Re-Logic. Bearing similarities to Minecraft in terms of gameplay, the player is dropped into a retro-like styled 2D world and must gather resources, defeat bosses, and build structures, while also exploring different environments, meeting new characters and surviving. The game has had incredible popularity on Steam since its official release in 2011, and has been ported to many other platforms since.

Gameplay

After creating a character, the player is dropped into an expansive 2D world with a few tools where they are encouraged to collect resources, build structures to protect themselves from monsters and potential death, and overcome various other challenges. Along with the player character is a Guide NPC who gives hints and tips to aid with progression in the game. The game contains a wide array of features such as fishing, exploration, boss monsters to fight, and randomized events, and, like Minecraft, has no singular goal for players to achieve in its sandbox worlds.

History

The game started development in early 2011 and was developed by Re-Logic, initially consisting of development head Andrew "Redigit" Spinks, sprite artist Finn "Tiyuri" Brice, and production assistant Jeremy "Blue" Guerrette, with music composition done by Scott Lloyd Shelly of Resonance Array.^[38] Prior to development, both Spinks and Guerrette worked on a freeware Mario fangame called Super Mario Bros. X^[11] (shown below), as lead developer and sprite artist respectively before switching over their focus to Terraria.

On May 16th, 2011, the game was officially released on Microsoft Windows through Steam. It became very popular in a very short time, selling 50,000 copies during the first day of the release.^[33] A few months after its release, its first major update, 1.1, was put out on December 1, 2011 (trailer shown below, left), with the most notable feature added being a new end-game mode known as Hardmode. On March 16, 2012, a collector's edition was published by Headup Games^[24] and distributed by Merge Games for European audiences (shown below, right).^[17][25]

In 2013, the game was ported to Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, with the ports developed by Engine Software and published by 505 Games (trailer shown below, left). The ports themselves contained exclusive content and were released on March 26 for PS3, and March 27 for Xbox 360. The game would later be ported to iOS and Android by Codeglue and RakNet and also published by 505 Games on August 29 for iOS and September 13 for Android. On September 30, 2013, the PC version was updated to 1.2 (trailer shown below, right), adding a new biome called the Crimson, along with an event called a Pirate Invasion, among other things. The game would also get seasonal updates for Halloween and Christmas, expanding the end-game significantly.

In 2014, the game was ported to Windows Phone on September 14, and was put up on GOG.com on October 2, making it available DRM-free. The game would also be ported to Playstation 4 on November 11, and to Xbox One on November 14 (trailer shown below, left). In 2015, Terraria was updated to 1.3 on June 30, adding features such as new events, a new boss, and an Expert gameplay mode (trailer shown below, right). The game was also ported to Mac OS X and Linux platforms on August 12, along with 3DS on December 10. In June 2016, the game was ported to the Wii U.

Update 1.4 – Journey's End

On June 10, 2019, Re-Logic showed the trailer for the final update of the game titled Journey's End during the PC gaming show of the E3. As May 14, 2020, said trailer scored nearly 4'000.000 views and 143.000 likes (Shown below). Months later on November 19, 2019, on the official forums, the developers announced that the update needed to be delayed from its late 2019 release to 2020 to be able to implement all the features they announced.^[47] Finally, on April 13, 2020, Andrew Spinks^[48] founder of Re-Logic announced that the update would be released on May 16, 2020, to coincide with the ninth anniversary of the game's release.

Some of the features included on the update are:

• More than 1000 items added.
• 14 more music tracks
• 2 new bosses.
• 2 new difficulties: Master mode (a harder difficulty than expert mode) and Journey mode (Similar to a creative mode but the player needs to unlock the items).
• Rebalancing a lot of weapons and armor sets and changes to the NPC housing system.
• A new minigame: Golf
• A Bestiary
• 2 new NPCs (Zoologist and Golfer) and 3 Town pets (Dog, Cat, and Bunny).
• Graphical overhaul of a lot of the old art.
• Official support to the mod tool tModLoader.

One of the most popular features introduced on the update is the introduction of the Zoologist NPC, which will reward the player when they fill the bestiary introduced on the update (shown below, left). After the character was revealed multiple artists started to draw fanart of her (shown below, center and right). While the character was well received by most fans, some of them complained about the inclusion of "Furries" in the game.

Sequels & Spin-Offs

Terraria: Otherworld

Terraria: Otherworld was a spin-off game to Terraria developed by Re-Logic originally in collaboration with Engine Software with development later moved to Pipeworks Studio. Described as "a novel take on the Terraria experience" to explore "what might have been"^[35], the game is set in an alternate dimension in the Terraria universe and follows the player character in a struggle to purify the world from the Corruption. The game will feature new mechanics such as RPG elements and tower defense, along with "purifying towers" meant to prevent the spread of the Corruption.^[36] Two trailers for the game exist (shown below), with both exceeding 1 million views as of December 2016. In April of 2018, it was announced that the development of Otherworld had ceased, saying that "Otherworld simply is never going to reach its potential in any sort of reasonable time or fashion."^[46]

"Terraria 2"

"Terraria 2" is a planned sequel to Terraria in production since 2012. Though there is no game as it exists as an announcement, planned features for the game include infinite worlds and increased biome diversity, along with changes to character progression and looting.^[37]

Reception

The game has received very positive reviews from both critics and users alike. The Steam page for Terraria has received a 97% positive user rating from over 155,000 users^[1], the GOG page receiving a 4.5/5 star rating from 790 users^[2], and a Metacritic score of 83 for the PC version as of November 2016. (other Metascores available below)^[3] The mobile ports for iOS and Android both have a rating of 4.5 stars out of a 5-star rating from over 92,000 users^[4], and a 4.2 rating out of 5 from over 170,000 users^[5] respectively. The console ports to Xbox 360^[6], Xbox One^[7], PlayStation 3^[8], PlayStation 4^[9], PlayStation Vita^[10], Wii U, and 3DS have also seen some positive reviews, with the ratings for the Xbox ports and the Playstation ports hovering around the 4/5 to 5/5 user rating.

In terms of video game critics, Nathan Meunier of IGN rated the game 9/10, saying that "Though on the surface it looks like just another "me too" indie game seeking to ride the coattails of Minecraft's success, Terraria expands on the familiar sandbox gameplay with a greater emphasis on combat and adventure that proves very satisfying."^[13] The Escapist's Justin Clouse also reviewed the game, rating it 4.5 stars out of 5, saying "If you're a fan of adventure platforms like Metroid and Castlevania, but you always felt they could be a little more sandbox, Terraria is a must-have."^[14] Eurogamer wrote 2 reviews for the console version of the game and the PC version of the game giving each version a 9/10 and an 8/10 respectively.^[15][16]

Terraria has also seen significantly large sales numbers since launch, with copies sold across all platforms totaling to over 18 million sold as of July 2016.^[34]

Online Relevance

The game's official Facebook page has garnered over 375,000 likes^[18] while its official Twitter account has garnered over 149,000 followers^[19] as of November 2016. Two wikis for the game exist, the official one^[20], having over 3,700 articles, and a Wikia, having over 4,900 articles.^[21] An official forum also exists where official news and updates are posted and used by Re-Logic developers with over 60,000 members and over 48,000 discussions.^[22] A subreddit for the game also exists with over 87,000 subscribers over the past 5 years since its creation.^[23] The game is also a semi-popular subject for lets-plays, with some lets-play series garnering millions of views. (examples shown below)

Fandom

A small, burgeoning following for the game exists on microblogging social network Tumblr.^[26][27] Search results on Deviantart for the keyword "Terraria" brings up over 14,000 results for fan-art.^[28] Among other such pieces of original art are also pixel art pieces made from the in-game materials available (example shown below, right). There are also Youtubers such as Yrimir^[29], HERO^[30], and TerrariaHelp^[31] who either got their start with originally Terraria content and are either still going strong with solely Terraria content or have since branched out into other content.

The game has also led to the creation of various fan-made stories within the in-game universe, such as the webcomic The Legend of Maxx^[32] (logo shown below), a Terraria webcomic made by Jesse McMinn about the titular Maxx and his group of friends as they collect four swords to banish the evil Corruption, with the webcomic popular enough to be referenced in-game with an end-game Hardmode item; the mushroom hammer weapon, the Hammush.

Search Interest

External References